As U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence (AI) and the semiconductor industry remains a central economic and national security issue, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Chair and CEO Lisa Su said she will attend President Donald Trump’s state dinner for Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“I’m honored to say that I will be at the dinner tomorrow night,” Su told FOX Business’ Liz Claman in a fireside chat on Wednesday during a trip to the New York Stock Exchange celebrating women in business. “It is an honor… to be there.”

“This summit between the presidents, President Xi and President Trump, is very impactful, very important. I think technology is one of those areas where we rely on the global ecosystem to come together. So, yes, I think we’re anxiously looking at what will come out of it. And the truth is, we want to ensure that there’s good stability across the global ecosystem as it relates to technology.”

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Su will join other prominent American tech leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Apple’s Tim Cook. The tech leaders’ anticipated attendance at the Trump-Xi state dinner comes at a time of geopolitical tensions, including over the development of AI and access to both models and the chips that power them.

The U.S. and China are competing to develop increasingly capable AI tools, a source of tension between the two countries. China’s access to specialized chips that power advanced AI models has been restricted through U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors, including those made by Nvidia.

President Trump recently described AI as potentially the greatest industrial revolution in history. As demand for compute capability grows, leaders in the industry face a dual responsibility to expand U.S. technology while establishing technical safeguards.

“I am an AI optimist,” Su said. “You know, I will say that for sure… And I’m not, you know, just saying this because I’m a technology person. In terms of power, of technology and what I’ve seen over my career over the last 30 plus years, it is the most powerful technology I’ve ever seen.”

“The world is going to be very ambitious with AI. The world should be very ambitious with AI. And I think we as technology companies and we as the American U.S. ecosystem must continue to be very aggressive while also ensuring that everybody comes together and realizes that we must build trust in AI,” she continued. “It is absolutely non-negotiable that we must build trust in AI.”

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A red carpet rollout is planned for when Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrive at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday evening, replete with an arrival ceremony for the man who has found himself at odds with Trump on issues ranging from artificial intelligence and intellectual property theft, trade practices, rare-earth minerals to the communist country’s support for Iran during America’s military conflict there. Xi hasn’t visited the nation’s capital in more than a decade.

AI will be a major topic of discussion during the two-day summit, which officially begins Thursday morning and ends Friday evening, according to a senior administration official.

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FOX Business’ Eric Revell and Fox News’ Peter D’Abrosca and Ashley J. DiMella contributed to this report.

Ulla Paajanen

Good afternoon to our guests here in the room and to everyone joining us online. My name is Ulla Paajanen, and I will be responsible for WISA’s Investor Relations. A warm welcome to WISA’s first Capital Markets Day hosted here at UPM Biofore House.

I would also like to remind you of our clear disclaimer since we might be making forward-looking statements. And before we begin, let me briefly get — go through some important safety information regarding the premises. Safety is a top priority for WISA. Therefore I would like to remind everyone here that in the event of evacuation, please leave all personal belongings behind and proceed outside as quickly and safely as possible. Our designated meeting point is located directly in front of the Biofore House.

Your today’s presenters are Chair of the Board, Tapio Korpeinen, whose distinguished career spans leadership position as a CFO and business area Executive at UPM. Joining him is President and CEO, Tuija Suur-Hamari, a highly respected leader with extensive experience across the forest industry, particularly in materials-based and industrial businesses. Completing the team is Chief Financial Officer, Lasse von Hertzen, who brings a unique combination of capital markets expertise from investment banking and deep financial leadership experience from UPM.

Let us now turn to today’s agenda. As you can see, Tapio will begin by sharing why UPM believes WISA is well positioned to create greater value as

McDonald’s on Wednesday announced new details as part of its long-term growth strategy, which will include a focus on upgrading restaurants and staff training, at an investor day at the corporate headquarters in Chicago.

The fast-food giant announced its NEXT growth and productivity strategy in June and outlined plans to implement changes throughout its system.

McDonald’s said that to speed up the modernization of restaurants, deployment of technology and other operational improvements, it plans to provide about $8.5 billion in NEXT partnering support for franchisees through 2036, with roughly $5 billion provided through 2030. 

The NEXT support for franchisees will include a combination of capital support and rent relief.

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The support comes with a target of about 250 basis points of gross restaurant-level efficiency improvements amounting to about $100,000 in annual cash flow benefits for the average restaurant, with the company saying the majority of that would benefit the restaurant’s bottom line over time.

McDonald’s announcement noted that the restaurant component of the plan aims to boost growth and productivity through simplified operations, elevated execution, modernized restaurant design and deploying generative AI-enabled ArchIQ at scale.

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The company also announced a multiyear training program called “Make it Golden” that will begin on Founder’s Day, Oct. 5, which aims to improve customer service to create more consistency for patrons and increase repeat visits.

“McDonald’s has the unmatched scale, customer insights, brand loyalty, and operational capabilities to not only adapt to the next wave of change in our industry, but to turn it into an advantage,” said McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski. “That’s what McDonald’s > NEXT is about: to be the first choice for more customers, more often – while making our restaurants stronger and easier to run.” 

MCDONALD’S SERVING UP NEW KIND OF ENERGY BOOST ON MENUS NATIONWIDE

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
MCD	MCDONALD’S CORP.	236.78	-13.59	-5.43%

“We are confident that executing across the key components of NEXT will unlock stronger restaurant economics, generate attractive returns for the Company, our franchisees and shareholders, and increase capacity to keep investing in growth,” Kempczinski added.

McDonald’s announcement also included new market share targets, calling for 1.5 percentage points of growth in both chicken and beverages by 2030, while also maintaining the company’s leadership in beef market share.

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Sales growth from unit expansion is also targeted to contribute nearly 2.5% to system-wide sales growth in 2027, moderating to about 2% by 2030.

Federal Reserve Governor Michael Barr said on Wednesday that the central bank took an important step last week to “recalibrate” short-term borrowing costs in its effort to bring down inflation, and signalled that further rate hikes are likely needed, Reuters reported.

“Risks to achieving our inflation target have increased, while risks to the labour market have receded,” Barr said in prepared remarks for a Chicago Fed housing affordability conference.

He noted that US economic growth remains strong and the labour market solid, but inflation is still above the Fed’s 2% goal and not clearly headed lower. “In my base case, further policy adjustments are likely needed to ensure inflation comes down to target in a timely fashion,” he said.

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In a unanimous decision last week, Fed policymakers raised the central bank’s policy rate to a range of 3.75%-4.00%. Sixteen of 18 officials signalled that at least one more hike would likely be needed before year-end, according to a Reuters report.

Barr’s remarks suggest he sees the case for at least two further increases, though he did not specify a timeline.
His willingness to be specific about the rate path stands in contrast to Fed Chairman Kevin Warsh, who has declined to offer any forward guidance on the matter.”In my view, given changes to the economy, we were out of position, and we made an adjustment in the right direction,” Barr added, referring to last week’s quarter-point hike. “We want to support sustainable, durable growth in support of maximum employment, and price stability is crucial to that.”

Barr’s comments on monetary policy were brief, with most of his speech devoted to housing affordability, a problem he said has been compounded by a shortage of supply and elevated mortgage rates. The average rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage in the US rose to 7.12% last week, its highest level in more than two years, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Wednesday.

(Disclaimer: This article is based on inputs from agencies. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

The majority of companies raising equity for the first time are now based outside London, according to research from Beauhurst Insights and the law firm Penningtons Manches Cooper, with the capital’s share of first-time deals falling to 44.6 per cent in the first half of 2026.

London’s share of all first-time equity deals had already dropped to 49.1 per cent in 2025, the researchers said. The last time more first-time fundraisings were completed outside the capital than inside it was in 2022, according to Beauhurst.

Companies using artificial intelligence captured 58.6 per cent of the value of all first-time deals in the six months to June, the study found. That compares with 32.9 per cent in 2025 and 17 per cent in 2024.

The 2,730 start-ups that sold shares for the first time in 2025 raised a total of £4.4bn, an increase of 11.7 per cent, according to the report.

However, 30 per cent more companies secured external capital for the first time, and the researchers said investors had committed less money per company and at lower valuations. Pre-investment valuations fell by 20.3 per cent to £1.5m last year, and the average has since slipped to £1.45m.

The average deal size fell from £2m to £1.7m. The median deal stood at £290,000, a gap the researchers attributed to the effect of several very large first-time fundraisings.

Henry Whorwood, managing director at Beauhurst Insights, said the increased volume of first-time equity raises reversed a long-term decline. He attributed that decline to venture capital firms increasingly needing to support their existing portfolio companies with more capital.

Mr Whorwood said the rise of AI had driven the reversal, with a wave of companies seeking to exploit the technology.

London leads on AI rounds

Although the capital’s overall share has fallen, London completed more AI first rounds than the rest of the UK combined, at 392 against 268, the research found.

London’s 60 per cent share of AI fundraising rounds was 11 percentage points ahead of its share of the market as a whole. The researchers said this reflected the concentration of investors and support services for technology companies in the capital.

Separate Barclays and Beauhurst figures published in July showed that UK equity investment rose to £14.4bn in the first half of 2026, with London accounting for the bulk of the money raised.

Outside London, first-time fundraising in the West Midlands nearly doubled in 2025, according to the report. Northern Ireland recorded a rise of 73 per cent and Scotland 60 per cent. London-based deal volumes rose by 27 per cent.

Largest first-time rounds

The report pointed to several very large first-time fundraisings. Isomorphic Labs, the London-based, Google-backed start-up that uses AI for drug discovery, raised £464m in March 2025.

Edinburgh-based Fidra Energy, which has developed a battery energy storage system, secured £445m from its owner, the US institutional investor EIG, alongside the UK’s National Wealth Fund.

In the first half of this year, the £814m of first-time equity raised by Ineffable Intelligence represented 39 per cent of the value of all first-time deals, according to the research.

The London-headquartered AI company was founded in late 2025 by David Silver, a computer science professor at University College London and a former senior AI specialist at Google’s DeepMind labs in London. The British Business Bank was among the backers of the Ineffable Intelligence round.

Separate Tracxn data published in July found that investors were writing fewer, larger cheques in the first half across UK tech.